Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Impressed with a conviction of the deep interest which Your Royal Highness takes in the prosperity and pre-eminence of British manufactures, we have the honor, at the request of Wm. Hirst, of Leeds, in the County of York, of presenting to Your Royal Highness, a specimen of cloth of his manufacture, sufficient for a coat, and of humbly requesting that Your Royal Highness will do him the favor to accept it. That he has attained to an excellence in the making and finishing of superfine woollen cloth, beyond every other manufacturer in Europe, has not only been allowed by skilful manufacturers, the natives of this country, but admitted by several foreigners of competent skill. This admission, we may add, would have been much more general, had not cloth, of this fineness and fabric, been at present a novelty, which very few have hitherto had an opportunity of seeing. Admiring Mr. Hirst’s perseverance and ingenuity in the improvement of an article which has tried the skill of our manufacturers for a succession of centuries, and which ranks so high in beauty, utility and importance, and feeling a desire to promote the interests of so meritorious a member of the community, we perhaps may be pardoned for adding, that we should be highly gratified, if, after a trial of the superiority of his cloth, Your Royal Highness should condescend to suffer us to be informed that he has Your Royal Highness’s permission for styling himself “Manufacturer of Superfine Cloth to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent,” and perhaps Your Royal Highness will be of opinion, that the circumstance of Mr. Hirst not having himself suggested any application for the honor of this appointment, and of his being indeed a stranger to this part of the present address, we humbly hope will by no means constitute a reason against the granting of this favor.

Comment

Comment

HRH said yes. As Hirst’s previous anecdote demonstrates, this was mainly aimed at challenging the predominance of West of England producers.

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Original

Colman-Street, 7th May, 1818.

SIR,

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS,

Impressed with a conviction of the deep interest which Your Royal Highness takes in the prosperity and pre-eminence of British manufactures, we have the honor, at the request of Wm. Hirst, of Leeds, in the County of York, of presenting to Your Royal Highness, a specimen of Cloth of his manufacture, sufficient for a Coat, and of humbly requesting that Your Royal Higness will do him the favor to accept it. That he has attained to an excellence in the making and finishing of Superfine Woollen Cloth, beyond every other manufacturer in Europe, has not only been allowed by skilful manufacturers, the natives of this country, but admitted by several foreigners of competent skill. This admission, we may add, would have been much more general, had not Cloth, of this fineness and fabric, been at present a novelty, which very few have hitherto had an opportunity of seeing.

Admiring Mr. Hirst’s perseverance and ingenuity in the improvement of an article which has tried the skill of our manufacturers for a succession of centuries, and which ranks so high in beauty, utility and importance, and feeling a desire to promote the interests of so meritorious a member of the community, we perhaps may be pardoned for adding, that we should be highly gratified, if, after a trial of the superiority of his Cloth, Your Royal Highness should condescend to suffer us to be informed that he has Your Royal Highness’s permission for styling himself “Manufacturer of Superfine Cloth to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent,” and perhaps Your Royal Highness will be of opinion, that the circumstance of Mr. Hirst not having himself suggested any application for the honor of this appointment, and of his being indeed a stranger to this part of the present address, we humbly hope will by no means constitute a reason against the granting of this favor.

Permit us to subscribe ourselves with the utmost deference and respect,

Sir,

Your Royal Highness’s

Most obedient and faithful Servants and Subjects,

(Signed) ABM. DIXON & CO.

To His Royal Highness George, Prince Regent, &c. &c. &c.

382 words.

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• George IV (1762-1830) (8), King of the United Kingdom and of Hanover 1820-30, prince regent for his father, George III, 1811-20 ·
• Hirst, William (1777-1858) (3), Huddersfield-born Leeds textile manufacturer and innovator, ruined inter alia by land speculation and the 1825 American crash ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Royal warrant of appointment (United Kingdom) (1) ·
• Royal warrant of appointment (1) ·
• Textile manufacturing (59) ·
• Woollen (21) ·

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Similar

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